Follow Along

The beginning of the year is a great time to start fresh, especially with eating (even though I’d much prefer to start fresh with summer produce, winter produce will do).

I always feel sluggish after the holidays. The heavy meals coupled with going out to eat with friends and family that are home always leave me less than happy. I tend to sleep longer, get more acne, and feel (overall) lazy. And so, I use the beginning of January to assess my eating habits. I clean out the refrigerator, jot down ideas for new recipes, and head to the store to start anew.

I don’t abide by the idea of cleanses or anything of that nature, I simply get back into my rhythm of a whole-foods diet. More plants, beans, and grains. Also with being sick, I’ve stopped my coffee intake and made the switch to tea. I’m always amazed at how much better I feel.

Small changes make such a big impact!

{Giveaway}

While in California, I picked up Michael Pollan’s Food Rules (illustrated by Maira Kalman). While it’s a simplistic book (if you want detailed books about eating/food, read Pollan’s In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma), it’s an excellent reminder (and refresher) about simple rules (guides) to follow for eating well.

I’m giving two readers a copy of Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. Simply leave a comment on this post about one food you want to cook more with in the New Year. Giveaway will be open until Friday, January 4th 2013 at 8:00pm (CST). I’ll draw two names at random and email the winners on Monday morning.

Cutting a pumpkin can sometimes be a pain- butternut squash or sweet potatoes make a nice (and easy) substitute.

Author: Erin Alderson

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin1 teaspoon olive oil

Seeds from pumpkin

sprinkle of salt

-------

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 ounces goat cheese

4 eggs

½ cup milk

---------

⅛ teaspoon salt

2 handfuls of arugula

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

(pumpkin seeds/goat cheese)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375˚.

Take pumpkin and cut off top. Slice in half and scoop out the insides, reserving seeds for roasting. Cut each side in half and from there, cut each quarter of pumpkin into 1″ strips. Continue to cut pumpkin in to 1″ cubes and slice off shell on each piece. Cut pumpkin pieces in to ½” pieces. Toss with 1 teaspoon olive oil and roast until tender, 25 minutes.

Rinse seeds, removing any pumpkin left on them and pat dry on a towel. Spread out on a baking tray, sprinkle a pinch of salt, and roast until crispy, 18-20 minutes.

I would like to cook more.. cultural food. I feel like a lot of food I eat has lost any cultural significance and I would like to go back more to my Asian heritage. Plus, cultural foods have a lot of history behind the flavors. (:

I’d like to learn to incorporate more greens besides {kale, chard, arugula, spinach} — so using things like dandelion greens more often, and figuring out ways to consume {turnip greens, kohlrabi greens, etc.} that aren’t just soup.

What a fun giveaway!! This looks amazing too! I want to cook with more winter produce, like pumpkin, butternut squash and zucchini! We’ve got a little one who just started eating solids, so those are his foods of choice right now!

I am hoping to begin to cook more variety of grains. In 2012 I really started to explore all the seasonal produce, but we are always accompanying meals with either brown rice or quinoa. Would love to branch out and try some new ones!

i’d like to get more comfortable with whole grains. i did some of this in 2012, but only really scratched the surface… i’d also like to work more with asian foods, particularly indian and malaysian and the like. intimidating, but so rewarding!

2012 was all about quinoa and coconut oil (not because of the blog, lol)….2013 will focus on cutting out as much processed food as possible (we do this already as far as HFCS and hydrogenated oils), baking more and using our new slow cooker.

Kale. I’ve been playing with it lately but need to up my game. My eight month old daughter loved the crispy roasted kale I made her this week but she despised the steamed kale. I need more experience with it.

Frittata sounds perfect. My food challenges for 2013 are pigs trotters (actually a challenge left over from 2012, bought them at the end of December but holiday food took over), home made cannoli (shells and all) and a propper cassoulet.

It’s not really one ingredient- but I want to make more visits to the farmers’s market this year! We had to give up our CSA this past year – my hubby had kidney stones the year prior- potentially from the overabundance of okra and other vegies we were getting in our CSA- no stones this year as we stuck to more basic vegies- but I miss my CSA surprises each week!!

I’ve discovered the brilliance of brussel sprouts and want to cook more with the guys! Once upon a time, I loathed brussel sprouts. My dog, not coincidentally, was fed large portions of them- slid stealthily underneath the table cloth for him on a platter of my hand. I tried them again recently and realized it’s now love. I need to make up for lost time!

i’m planning to cook up more big pots of grains, beans, and lentils and cut back on pricey and processed faux-meats. i’d also like to do more improvisational cooking — i’ll be keeping more veggies on hand to cook up for quick stir fries, tacos, etc, to avoid the default of going out to eat.

Just found your lovely blog and it is stunning. I am hoping to have more success with a garden this year, it will be my third attempt. Eating homegrown food is the best; I just have to figure out how to grow it well!

Inspired by your post, I want to eat more squash. Winter squash, summer squash, any squash! I love cooking with it, but so often winter squashes take a lot of effort. I want to look past that and incorporate these wonderful foods into my diet more. As a vegetarian, squash can add such variety!

Greens! Grown here in my garden! In NC, that is not too hard a thing to do. I’m waiting on the soil to dry a bit and then to plant some kale. I have collards in the ground now, peas will go in the first of Feb. Food from our farm tastes the best and is the freshest

More vegetable based soups this year! I get oddly excited about getting back to eating healthy in the New Year – all those sweets over the holidays are fun, but I’m always glad to say farewell when it’s all over.

I see I’m not the only one who wants to do more cooking with kale! I was a little hesitant to use it at first, because my partner is not always enthusiastic about green things, but I tried a recipe from Neil Perry’s ‘Rockpool’ cookbook and now he’s a convert. I can’t wait to try more things with it.

Hi Erin, such a lovely blog, I always enjoy reading your recipes. I would like to cook more with black salsify this year. I think it’s a rather uncommon winter vegetable, but so velvety and nutty in taste, even similar to asparagus – it is a pity you don’t find it more often in restaurants or markets either.

I’ve really been into making egg dishes the past few months (frittatas, quiches), so this recipe looks great! My pinterest food boards are overrun with your posts; love them This year I’d like to expand my tofu and tempeh repetoir… something other than thai curry peanut stir fry would be nice! (Although it’s delicious)

My goal is to use different kinda of squash in my cooking this year. I’ve been sticking to the usual butternut and spaghetti…and I was to start trying acorn, delicata squash. And I want to cook them using coconut oil!

I want to cook more out of the garden this year and make more frequent trips to the farmer’s market. I want to replace our usual protein + veggies with some interesting dinner salads that include whole grains, fruits, nuts, etc.